[philip.devos]

I have 2 hives with working layers working overtime which now have 4 or 5 frames with capped drone brood. My question has to do with the offspring of these "Worker" Drones. I wonder if it is better to kill off these drones rather than allow them to contribute to the gene pool, which may lead to inferior offspring vs. drones from healthy queens?

Phil

 

[sqkcrk]

I wouldn't destroy this drone brood, unless you are doing so as a mite control. Considering that drones from a queen and drones from a worker are both haploid, I don't think that there is any difference. The laying workers came from a fertilized egg laid by a fertilized queen. So, again, what would the difference be if an unfertilized egg was laid by a queen or a worker.

If there is a difference someone will probably speak up.

 

[burns375]

My thought also. More important question...what are you doing with laying workers? Is the drone brood in worker cells? I would pitch the comb if its drone cell.

 

[Roland]

I concur with SQKCRK. Do what you would normally do with drone brood.

Crazy Roland

 

[rwurster]

I had a laying worker colony that absolutely wrecked two 10 frame deeps of comb. I redistributed the drone comb to the outside of most of my hives. I was left with that same nagging question: Are drones that come from a laying worker viable stock for mating?

 

[RayMarler]

I wonder if they'd be able to catch up to a queen, seeing as they are undersized drones when raised in worker cell comb.

 

[Sasha]

There is difference. The drones from this colony are weaker and smaller. A waste of resources. There was a paper somewhere on this.
I would scrape them, shake the bees out on the ground and add the box on a good hive.

 

[beepro]

From my experience, these drones are useless eating lots of hive resources.
They are not big enough compared to the regular raised drones to compete on
a mating flight. The regular drones coming from the drone cells even buzz louder
when they fly into the hive. No good drones coming from worker cells!